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Crouched protectively over Za, Hur looked up fiercely as
Barbara and Ian approached. 'Keep away!'
'Let me look at him,' said Ian.
'No. You will kill him.'
Gently Barbara pulled Hur aside, as Ian knelt beside Za's body.
'It's all right,' said Ian. 'I'm your friend.'
Hur looked at him in amazement. 'Friend?'
'I shall need some water.'
'Water?'
'Get me some water,' said Ian patiently. 'For his wounds.'
Hur pointed. 'There is a stream - over there.'
'Show me,' said Barbara firmly, as though addressing a
reluctant pupil. 'Give me your handkerchief, will you, Ian?'
Muttering and grumbling, the Doctor allowed
Susan to lead him over. 'It's all right, grandfather,' said Susan
soothingly. It's quite safe now.' The Doctor snorted in disgust.
Susan looked down at the caveman. 'How is he, Ian? Is he
dead?'
'Far from it,' said Ian. 'In fact, he's a lot better than he looks.'
He picked up the haft of Za's axe. 'I imagine he must have left his
axe-head in the tiger.'
Barbara and Hur came back into the clearing. Barbara gave Ian
his water-soaked handkerchief, and Hur carried more water in a
folded leaf.
Ian began washing away the blood from Za's wounds, which
were soon revealed to be no more than a series of deep slashes in his
arm and shoulder. 'Most of this blood is the tiger's,' said Ian.
Barbara pointed. 'Look, there's a cut in his forehead - the tiger
must have stunned him.' Ian bathed the cut, and Za moaned and
stirred. Ian looked ruefully at Barbara. 'We seemed to have missed
our chance of getting away. I bet your flat must be just littered with
stray cats and dogs.'
'They're human beings, Ian,' said Barbara again.
'All right, I know.'
Ian looked up at the Doctor, who stood scowling down at
them. 'Have you got medical supplies in the ship? Antiseptic?'
'This is preposterous,' spluttered the Doctor. 'One moment we
are desperately trying to get away from these savages and now -'
'Now we're helping them! I know. You're a Doctor. Do
something.'
'I am not a Doctor of medicine, young man.'
'Grandfather, we should make friends with them,' urged Susan.
'Maybe they'll help us.'
'Ridiculous!'
'Why?' said Barbara angrily. 'Why must you treat everyone and
everything as less important than yourself?'
The Doctor looked severely at her. 'I suppose you think that
everything you do is reasonable, and everything I do is inhuman. But
suppose your judgement's wrong, not mine? If these two savages can
follow us, so can their fellows. The whole Tribe may be upon us at
any moment!'
'The Tribe sleeps,' said Hur.
'And the old woman who set us free, mm? What about her?'
'You're right, Doctor. We're too exposed here.' The Doctor
nodded complacently - but his expression changed rapidly when Ian
went on, 'We'll make a stretcher and carry him with us!'
'You're not proposing to take him back to the ship?'
'We can make the stretcher with our coats,' said Ian briskly.
'Barbara, Susan, see if you can break off a couple of long straight
branches from those bushes.'
As she moved away, Barbara said, 'Maybe the old woman
won't give us away. She helped us, she won't want the others to
know.'
'Do you think these people have logic and reason,' said the
Doctor furiously. 'Can't you see, their minds change as rapidly as
night follows day. She may well be telling the entire Tribe at this
very moment...'
Sometime in the night Kal woke, warned by some instinct of
danger. He looked around him. Everything seemed normal. Then he
saw that Old Mother was gone. And Za and Hur... Something was
happening. Whatever it was, it must be concerned with the strangers.
Za had betrayed him, he was trying to force the strangers to give him
the secret of the fire.
Kal rose, knife in hand, and made his way stealthily to the cave
of skulls. His suspicions were confirmed, when he saw that the great
stone had been moved aside.
He slipped through the gap and saw to his astonishment that
the cave held no strangers, and no Za. Only Old Mother lay moaning
on the ground.
Kal dragged her to her feet. 'The strange creatures - where are
they?'
'They have gone,' said Old Mother, a gleam of triumph in her
eyes.
'How did they move the stone?'
'Za moved it.'
'Za has gone with them? Tell me, old woman, tell me!'
The old woman pointed to the back of the cave. 'Za and Hur
went after the strangers. Through there. There is another way.'
'The strangers' hands and feet were bound,' said Kal fiercely.
'Za set them free! They have gone with Za to show him how to make
fire.'
'I set them free,' said Old Mother proudly. 'Now they will not
make fire any more. There will be no more fire!'
'You freed them?' Kal saw an end to all his hopes - the secret
of fire lost, or given to Za - and all because of this meddling old
woman. 'You freed them?'
A surge of blind rage swept through him, and suddenly the
stone knife in his hand was buried in Old Mother's heart.
The old woman stared disbelievingly down at the knife for a
moment, then fell dead at his feet.
Kal plucked out the knife, wet with the old woman's blood, and
thrust it beneath his skins. He would have to think of something to
tell the Tribe.
Ian was busy showing Susan and Barbara how to make an
improvised stretcher. 'The poles go through the sleeves of the coats
like that you see...'
Susan knelt to wipe Za's forehead, but Hur thrust her rudely
away. 'No. He is mine.'
'I was only trying to help him.'
Ian smiled. 'I think she's jealous of you, Susan.'
Baffled, Hur looked around the group. 'I do not understand any
of you. You are like a mother with a baby. Za is your enemy. Why
do you not kill him?'
Ian said, 'These people just don't understand kindness or
friendship. See if you can explain, in a way she'll understand,
Barbara.'
'We will make him well again,' said Barbara gently. 'We will
teach you how fire is made. All we ask in return is that you show us
the way back to our own cave.'
A feeble voice from the ground said, 'Listen to them, Hur.
They speak truth. They did not kill me.' By now Za was conscious,
though still dazed.
'I'm getting worried about the time,' said Ian. 'We've been here
far too long. Are we all ready?'
'I'm terribly thirsty,' said Susan. 'Can I just go and get a drink?'
Ian nodded, and Susan went over to Hur and said hopefully,
'Water?'
Hur led the way to the stream and Susan followed.
'Be careful!' called Barbara.
Susan looked at the Doctor, who was standing a little apart,
sulking. 'Do you want some water, grandfather?'
'No, I do not!'
'What about giving us a hand here, Doctor?' called Ian.
The Doctor folded his arms and turned his back.
'Don't take any notice of him,' said Susan over her shoulder.
'He's often like this, especially when he doesn't get his own way!'
Ian finished checking over the stretcher. It would have to be
pretty solid to carry Za's weight.
'Maybe it was a good idea making friends with these two,' said
Barbara hopefully. 'We might even stand a better chance of getting
back to the ship.'
Ian looked up from his task and saw that the Doctor had picked
up a heavy pointed stone and was advancing stealthily towards Za.
He sprang up and gripped the Doctor's wrist. 'What are you
doing?'
'Let go of me,' said the Doctor indignantly. 'I was just going to
ask him to draw some kind of map on the ground, to show us the way
back to the TARDIS.'
Ian looked narrowly at the old man. Just how much
ruthlessness was the Doctor capable of, if he felt it might save his
own and Susan's life?
He took the stone from the Doctor's hand and tossed it aside.
'It's a good idea, Doctor, but I don't think he's in a fit state to draw
any maps. We'd better get going.'
Susan and Hur were back from the stream by now, and the
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